Rezoning Plan to Remake 3 Upper West Side Schools Will Proceed, City Says

New York City’s Education Department said on Wednesday that it would proceed with a fiercely contested plan to redraw elementary school zones on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in an effort to reduce overcrowding while increasing racial and economic integration at three schools.

The plan, which the department was to present on Wednesday night to the elected parent body that votes on such zone changes, is similar to earlier versions of the proposal, which have drawn strident opposition and have prompted some parents to threaten legal action. In recent weeks, the department had stalled, stirring speculation that it might back down in the face of political pressure, as it did last year.

Instead, the department said on Wednesday that it was forging ahead.

In all, 11 school zones will be redrawn. The three schools that would be significantly affected by the move are at the southern end of Community School District 3, which encompasses the Upper West Side and part of Harlem. While the district is racially and economically diverse as a whole, many of its elementary schools are not.

Two of the three schools, Public School 199, on West 70th Street, and Public School 452, on West 77th Street, serve students who are mostly white and well off. The zone for the third school, Public School 191, on West 61st Street, includes a public housing project as well as expensive apartments, though for decades white families have avoided it, leaving it with a population that is poor and mostly black and Hispanic. It also operates below capacity, while P.S. 199 is overcrowded.

The department’s proposal would redistribute students and move two of the schools into different buildings. In an elaborate dance, P.S. 191 would shift to a newly constructed building just over a block away from its current home, which the department hopes will give the school a fresh start. P.S. 452, which presently shares a building with two other schools, would move into P.S. 191’s current building, where it could serve twice as many students as it now does. Some families currently zoned for P.S. 199 would instead be put into the P.S. 191 zone. And P.S. 452 would add some of the present zones for P.S. 191 and P.S. 199.

Overall, the effect would be to put many more white, well-off students in the P.S. 191 zone, while putting more poor, minority students into the zones for P.S. 199 and P.S. 452. The changes would only affect future students; no current students would have to change schools, and children with older siblings already attending one of the affected schools would get priority at those schools.

The plan is similar to one offered last month by the District 3 Community Education Council, the group that will vote on changing the lines. The department said the council would vote by the end of the month, when parents can start registering their children for kindergarten.

The controversy over the zones is likely to continue beyond the council’s vote. Current P.S. 452 parents who oppose the school being moved have said they would sue to halt the plan. Residents of two buildings that would be rezoned from P.S. 199 to P.S. 191 — 165 and 185 West End Avenue — have hired a lawyer, though their plans are unclear.

Assuming the rezoning survives any possible legal challenges, a major hurdle for the Education Department will be persuading wealthy parents to enroll their children at P.S. 191, which has low standardized test scores and was once labeled “persistently dangerous” by New York State. The department has said it would start a gifted and talented program for third graders at the school next year and would provide financing, starting this year, for an instructional coach to work with teachers on math and literacy.

The department also said on Wednesday that it was moving to consolidate two schools in Harlem, essentially closing Public School 241, which last year had only 112 students in kindergarten through fifth grade. To do that, the department is asking the council to approve redrawing the zone lines of five other schools. Students and staff now at P.S. 241 would be moved to Public School 76, eight blocks north.

A version of this article appears in print on , on Page A18 of the New York edition with the headline: A Plan to Remake 3 Manhattan Schools Will Proceed. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe